Also known as: surrogate parents · surrogate · surrogacy
Written by attorneys · grounded in primary & secondary sources — see below
An individual who enters into a surrogacy agreement to become the legal parent of a child conceived through assisted reproduction and carried by a gestational or genetic surrogate.
Samantha Stone and her partner contract with Stella Shapiro to serve as gestational surrogate. After the child is born, Samantha seeks recognition as legal parent in probate proceedings. The court looks to applicable state parentage statutes to resolve whether Samantha qualifies as the child's parent under the surrogacy arrangement.
Sebastian Santos, named as intended parent in a surrogacy agreement, petitions for parentage after the child's birth. The court applies state law implementing the Uniform Parentage Act to determine whether Santos satisfies the statutory requirements as the legal parent.
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Solomon Silver dies leaving a trust for his children. Santiago Sanchez claims status as Silver's child through a surrogacy arrangement. The court examines whether the surrogacy agreement and subsequent conduct establish Sanchez as a beneficiary under the trust terms.
Sean Steele dies intestate. Stella Shapiro claims that her child, born under a surrogacy agreement with Steele, qualifies as an heir. The court considers whether the surrogacy establishes a parent-child relationship sufficient for inheritance under state law.
Samantha Stone and her former partner enter a surrogacy agreement with Stella Shapiro. After birth, both Stone and Shapiro assert parentage. The court resolves the dispute by determining which party functioned as the intended parent under the agreement.
Sebastian Santos, acting as surrogate parent under an agreement, seeks to challenge a government policy affecting the child's benefits. The court examines whether Santos has standing to assert the claim on the child's behalf.
Parentage is determined under applicable state law implementing the Uniform Parentage Act provisions governing surrogacy agreements. The intended parent or parents must satisfy the statutory requirements for establishing legal parentage after the child's birth.
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The agreement alone does not automatically confer parentage. The intended parent must also function as a parent of the child within a reasonable time after birth to secure recognition for purposes such as class gifts or intestate succession.
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The intended parent must satisfy all statutory eligibility requirements and then function as a parent of the child within a reasonable time after birth. Courts apply the Uniform Parentage Act or equivalent state law to confirm the parent-child relationship.
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Yes. Requirements such as minimum age, prior birth experience, medical evaluation, mental health consultation, and independent legal representation must all be satisfied. Noncompliance renders the agreement unenforceable.
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…wholly foreign one. In this respect, it is very different from exceptions to the Confrontation Clause that make no claim to be a surrogate means of assessing reliability. For example, the rule of forfeiture by wrongdoing (which we accept) extinguishes confrontation claims on essentially equitable grounds; it does not purport…